{"id":376269,"date":"2026-04-05T12:42:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T12:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/376269\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T12:42:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T12:42:07","slug":"pepsi-cancels-sponsorship-of-u-k-festival-with-kanye-west-headlining","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/376269\/","title":{"rendered":"Pepsi Cancels Sponsorship of U.K. Festival With Kanye West Headlining"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe scheduled three-night headlining appearance by Ye, formerly Kanye West<\/a>, at the Wireless Festival<\/a> in London is only growing in controversy. The festival\u2019s sponsor, Pepsi<\/a>, announced Sunday that it is withdrawing from its decade-plus co-branding with Wireless. Although the statement did not mention the rapper by name, it came hours after Ye\u2019s booking was roundly condemned by the U.K.\u2019s prime minister, Keir Starmer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cPepsi has decided to withdraw its sponsorship of Wireless Festival,\u201d the company said in a short statement given to multiple British news organizations. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe festival had officially been known as \u201cPepsi MAX Presents Wireless,\u201d as part of a partnership that had been in place since 2015. Although many music fans welcomed Ye\u2019s return to the stage there, Pepsi had also been tagged in outraged tweets protesting the company\u2019s apparent support for him as sole headliner.<\/p>\n

\n\tPrime Minister Starmer had made it clear that he, for one, was not ready to normalize Kanye West yet, now that the hip-hop superstar is seemingly returning to touring business as usual in other countries.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt is deeply concerning Kanye West has been booked to perform at Wireless despite his previous antisemitic remarks and celebration of Nazism,\u201d Starmer said in a statement to the British newspaper the Sun. \u201cAntisemitism in any form is abhorrent and must be confronted firmly wherever it appears. Everyone has a responsibility to ensure Britain is a place where Jewish people feel safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs of Sunday morning, the Wireless Festival website<\/a> still advertised Ye\u2019s booking \u2014 and continued to tout Pepsi\u2019s sponsorship. \u201cPepsi MAX presents Wireless returns to Finsbury Park on the 10-12 July 2026,\u201d reads the text on the main page. \u201cYe will headline all 3 days at Wireless 2026. 11 years later, Ye returns to London for a three night journey through his most iconic records.\u201d A ticket link on the site shows that sales are set to begin Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\n\tStarmer was not the first political figure in the U.K. to raise an objection to the scheduled London appearance by Ye. Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey expressed his view Thursday that Ye should be banned from entering the U.K., saying that \u201cwe need to get tougher on antisemitism.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tAnd London mayor Sadiq Khan on Wednesday made statements distancing the city\u2019s government from the festival at Finsbury Park on July 10-12. \u201cWe are clear that the past comments and actions of this artist are offensive and wrong, and are simply not reflective of London\u2019s values,\u201d a spokesperson for the Mayor said. \u201cThis was a decision taken by the festival organizers and not one that City Hall is involved in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe alarm in some circles overseas follows what is being seen as the beginning of a successful comeback by Ye in the U.S. He just played two nights at SoFi Stadium in the Los Angeles area, where he was joined by guest stars including Lauryn Hill, Travis Scott and Don Toliver, performing from atop a giant half-globe in the middle of the enormous venue.<\/p>\n

\n\tYe published a full-page apology ad in the Wall Street Journal<\/a> in January, acknowledging disturbing behavior that has made him a pariah in recent years. The hip-hop titan said in the ad that he has been getting treatment for a brain condition after last year suffering \u201ca four-month-long manic episode of psychotic, paranoid and impulsive behavior that destroyed my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe followed that with an interview in Vanity Fair expressing similar sentiments of contrition. However, the magazine acknowledged that the Q&A was conducted by email and not live, leading some to believe ad advisor was writing the answers for him, on top of suspicions that the WSJ ad may have been ghost-written as well. Ye has yet to make any of these penitent statements in anything other than written form.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt has been less than a year since Ye released the song \u201cHeil Hitler,\u201d which was banned from all major streaming platforms. He subsequently announced he was \u201cdone with antisemitism\u201d and issued a new version of \u201cHeil Hitler,\u201d now renamed \u201cHallelujah,\u201d with references to Nazism changed to Christian lyrics.<\/p>\n

\n\tThere was some thought that Ye might address the issues in his SoFi Stadium appearances, but he stuck to the tenor of triumph. \u201c\u201cThat\u2019s what 80,000 people sound like, ladies and gentlemen,\u201d he told the crowd at his second SoFi show on Friday. \u201cThey said I\u2019d never be back in the States. Two sold-out concerts, baby!\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tHe also told the audience, \u201cI want to thank y\u2019all for sticking by me all these years. Through the hard times, through the low times. I love you for that.\u201d The SoFi Stadium shows were his first substantial U.S. solo shows in five years.<\/p>\n

\n\tYe\u2019s three-night appearance at the Wireless Festival are being billed as his first U.K. appearance in 11 years. Some Jewish leaders in the U.K. immediately slammed the booking as \u201cdeeply irresponsible,\u201d like the Jewish Leadership Council, which said in a statement to the Guardian, \u201cWest has repeatedly used his platform to spread antisemitism and pro-Nazi messaging \u2026 Any venue or festival should reconsider before providing their platform to Kanye West to spread his antisemitism.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPepsi has been prominent on the Wireless Festival branding as the \u201cheadline partner,\u201d but the festival website also lists a number of other \u201cpartners\u201d that may find themselves under similar pressure to stand with or against the Ye booking, including PayPal, Rockstar Energy Drink, Budweiser, Johnnie Walker, Drip, Beatbox, Drip and Big Green Coach. As of this writing none had yet followed Pepsi in staking a position.<\/p>\n

\n\tYe\u2019s latest album, \u201cBully,\u201d is expected to debut high on the Billboard 200 chart when results are announced Sunday. Critics have noted the album is on the benign side for the artist, as controversial lyrics go, without any of the disturbing content that made its way into recent projects like \u201cVultures 1,\u201d his 2024 collaboration with Ty Dolla $ign, which debuted at No. 1, or his unreleased but leaked 2025 \u201cCuck\u201d project, which included the \u201cHeil Hitler\u201d single.<\/p>\n

\n\tdespite wading further into antisemitic waters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The scheduled three-night headlining appearance by Ye, formerly Kanye West, at the Wireless Festival in London is only…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376270,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[458,146,85,46,18221,5357,71635,180514],"class_list":{"0":"post-376269","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-kanye-west","13":"tag-keir-starmer","14":"tag-pepsi","15":"tag-wireless-festival"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}